


An Idiot I Just Can't Hate

by DestructivelyConstructive



Series: Drabbles [1]
Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Draal doesn't care, Draal is Not Over Nomura, Draal sticks his foot in his mouth, F/M, Fluff, I guess???, Kanjigar doesn't approve, Neither does Nomura, Pining, SO MUCH FLUFF, Two emotionally challenged dorks in love, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 02:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12026067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestructivelyConstructive/pseuds/DestructivelyConstructive
Summary: Jim's back from the Darklands, and he brought someone Draal thought he wouldn't see again. And now that she's here, old feelings are rearing their heads and fawning over the fuchsia changeling.





	An Idiot I Just Can't Hate

Draal watched the Trollhunter train with the Impure, trying not to growl at her, or the very thought of this absurdity. Or the thoughts that arose watching how she moved, the way the light reflected off her body and how her eyes glowed, often differing with that she was watching and doing.

He was not going back down that road. 'Never again' he had vowed when they had first fallen out.

But now here she was, sparring with Jim to better his skill with dual wielding. Though she had forgone her usual blade at Blinky's insistence. To even the playing field, considering his inexperience, the scholar had said.

There was a flash of silver, and he found himself flinching as one of her dagger became embedded in the stone next to his head. And watched as she gazed down at the boy with the Amulet's daggers pointing at her chest. He followed the subtly tense lines of her body, and followed her movement as she stepped back and turned to Blinky, swatting the Trollhunter's arms down and away from her.

“It appears you were either unaware of his skill, or greatly exaggerated his inexperience.” She stated, sounding bored.

“I'm going with the latter.” She added

“ _Thank you!_ I've been trying to tell him that!” The boy interjected.

She turned her piercing gaze to him and curled her lip. He knew that look. It meant she wasn't impressed with the arrogance the recipient was excluding.

“Just because you fell Gunmar and survived the Darklands does not mean you get to skip out on any training. Especially when your trainer is looking out for your well being. I was just taking note of my observations.” She reprimanded.

“Besides, it's better that you're able to fall back on your training, rather than your instincts.” She added, hissing the last few words.

“My instincts got me through the Darklands.” Jim insisted.

That was another thing that irritated the large blue troll. He didn't know what had happened in the Darklands, and he felt like he no longer knew his friend. The human who had resolutely gone into the Darklands for his friends wasn't the same one who came out, Enrique on his hip, and the changeling by his side.

“And what would have happened to you if I hadn't been there?” Came her sharp reply.

Another thing to add to his list of greviences.

“You seem touchy today, Nomura.”

The female's nose flared as she narrowed her eyes. A growl sounded in her chest and she began walking away, the prefect vision of scorn.

“I hope you took my advice and removed the Eye of Gunmar from the Amulet, boy.” She hissed bitterly.

Jim said nothing as she went to lean against one of the Forge's walls, watching them all with a predator's focus. A tense, bordering on awkward, silence fell over the Forge at her words, just before Blinky pointedly cleared his throat.

“Yes, well... I think that enough for today... Master Jim, don't you have some sort of appointment with your mother?”

A glimpse of the old Jim surfaced as the boy smacked his forehead, the armor disappearing in wisps of blue.

“Oh man, That's right! Thanks, Blinky!”

Then he was sprinting away, pocketing the Amulet. Blinky effectively disappeared to research various things regarding the poison that took Aaarrrgghh's life. Leaving only the changeling, who was busy inspecting her claws. And steadfastly ignoring him.

And he would have been fine with ignoring her in return, if it wasn't for what she had said before Jim had departed. _(Or before she was lost to the Darklands once more.)_ So he swallowed his inhibitions and made his way over to her.

Her ears flicked as she listened to him approach, and she barely glanced at him. Her eyes flicked back to her claws, before darting to his prosthetic in a double take.

“I hadn't noticed that before.” She said quietly.

“How does anyone _not notice_ a prosthetic of this size?” Draal rebuked.

“By only looking out of the corner of their eyes.” She huffed, doing just as she said, only looking at him on the edge of her vision.

Unbidden, some part of him twinged at her apparent scorn and disinterest. He quickly shoved it under a rug and turned to his bravado to deflect any more such blows.

“Do you find yourself higher because of your role in Gunmar's demise?” He growled, willing his face to form into a scowl and glare.

Finally, she turned her verdant gaze to him, and he would deny the thrill from being under her full attention until his death bed. _(Maybe just until she asked.)_

“Why would I want to look at someone who hurt me as you have?” She inquired, her tone icy.

He sucked in a breath at the coldness with which she was holding herself. Her strange, cruel beauty was brought into painfully sharp clarity as her bright eyes smoldered with furious fire.

When he failed to answer her, she scoffed and pushed of the wall to leave. His thoughts ran away from him as he watched her _(Watching, watching, he was always watching her)_ , and they fell from his mouth before he even knew what they were.

“Did you mean it?”

As he stared after her, he watched – with no small bit of fascination - as her fluid grace became harsh edges and sharp angles, and he made a note to propose a challenge to Blinky. To describe water suddenly becoming stone.

Her voice was as harsh as she looked in that moment. “Did I mean what?”

“What you said during... Well...When I last saw you.”

Nomura turned to him, her face an emotionless mask, her movements stiff, and her eyes as maelstroms. The silence between them rang, before the changeling let out a single chuckle.

“Subtlety doesn't suit you, Draal.”

“But did you?” He pressed. _(Did he really sound that breathless?)_

He brows furrowed slightly as she thought, mulling over her feelings and thought process at that point in time.

Finally she took a shuddering breath.

“At the time, I held onto a hope. Maybe I meant it, maybe it was only to taunt you, but I had some hope, against all rationality.”

Draal just barely stopped himself from smiling. Then the slight softness in her voice fled, and only steel remained.

“But then I banished all that hope when you made your stance on the matter clear.”

“Why?”

There went his mouth again, saying what his heart suggested and not heeding what his mind demanded.

“To save myself the hurt and heartbreak.” _(She sounded so conflicted.)_

He must've had a peculiar look on his face, for she continued.

“Well, as they humans say. Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” _(That wasn't true. They both knew it. Why would knowing this pain be better than being blissfully ignorant that such things existed?)_

“Could it be found again?” There went his heart again.

He needed to leave, before he made an even bigger fool of himself. He didn't know he could get this... Clingy, for a lack of a better word.

But still, Nomura wasn't leaving, so it was getting him somewhere. He watched her as she stare at him, looking at a loss.

“You've changed. Once, you were a fool, the type of fool who believed himself both superior and infallible. But you were MY fool for a few stolen moments. Now? Now I don't know.”

She tilted, her head, considering him with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

“You're still an idiot though. A tactless idiot that I just can't hate. I wish I could. _I wish I could hate you_. But I can't, I just can't. And it's irritating,” She paused, her eyes searching for something, “But not unwelcome.”

Without his knowledge, Draal took a few steps forward. The changeling became as still as a doe, her ears perking slightly. When he saw no indications of tension, he continued forward until he was standing before her. They locked eyes for a while as the blue troll ordered his heart and thoughts.

Finally he managed to speak without his mouth running away from him.

“Do you want me to your fool once more?”

The woman stared for a moment, before a smile – a genuine, joyful smile – split across her face and laughter bubbled from her. Draal reined in his temper in as her evident amusement ran its course. It wouldn't do him good to have come this far, and then undo any progress he had made by raging at her.

But she eventually met his eyes again. His heart skipped a beat in his chest at the expression she had, which he had never seen directed at anything or anyone. Not even the ancient pottery she was so fond of. _(Especially not him.)_

“Not yet. Maybe in the future, but not yet.”

“I'll wait until you ready.” He murmured to her.

Her expression softened so that she was still giving him that new expression that had had never seen, but now she almost looked shy, with half lidded eyes and a gently curving smile.

“Then the future might not be so far off.” She hummed, resting a slim hand on his prosthetic.

She rested the other at the base of his throat. Then she pressed her face under his chin, and he knew his face would have heated if it could when he felt her smile against his skin.

When she drew away, her eyes were alight with humor.

“We'll try to keep the politics out of it this time, yes?”

“Yes, of course.” He murmured again, raising hand to brush stray hairs away from her thin face.

She huffed out a small bout of laughter, even as he dropped his hand to take a gentle hold of one of hers. Even as he felt a heavy sensation at the back of his neck.

He glanced about as the fuchsia changeling curled her spindly fingers through his, and found him staring at his father's final resting place.

Again, his face would have heated if it could.

So he turned to Nomura and asked after her interests, if she had found any new ones with rich history. He watched fondly _(Always watching)_ as her face lit up and she dove into explaining new finds and how certain types of pottery were made, and soon enough it turned into a rant about the idiocy of humans of the time _('She would know, she had to_ _ **travel**_ _' she remarked)_ as they wandered out of the Forge.

And once she reined in her interests and annoyances, she inquired after his change of behavior. Soon enough they were exchanging stories, lighthearted ones as they moved through Trollmarket. They could talk of the heavier subjects once they reached the basement of the Lake house.

Or they could revel in the somewhat clear air between them, and in one an others presence as they were doing now. _(He liked that option. He really liked it.)_

At any rate, he had broken the vow he had made after the first time. Not that he would lose any sleep over it.

**Author's Note:**

> For the Dromura anon on Tumblr!  
> I hope you enjoy it, and it's up to standard. I had a lot of fun writing this.  
> I drew a lot of inspiration from Tench on Tumblr. They have awesome Dromura content.


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